The Faculty Senate has had a busy year filled with budgetary concerns and controversial resolutions. But for President Kevin Cope, the most important part has been the way Faculty Senate has stretched its legs and increased its visibility at the University.Cope said this year was a “transformative” one for the senate, allowing the organization to have a larger voice in University issues than it has in the past.”From budget cuts to departmental reorganization, the Faculty Senate dealt with almost everything in the University,” Cope said. “This is the year of faculty government.”Among all the senate’s actions during the past year, Cope said the most important was making faculty leaders a more powerful presence in University happenings.”It’s made faculty government an item of public interest,” Cope said. “It’s alerted the University to the fact that the input of Faculty Senate is important.”The senate seeks to further that objective by creating a closer bond between the faculties of the various LSU system campuses. Cope said Faculty Senate recently met with representatives from LSU-Eunice to discuss concerns shared by the groups.There are also concrete accomplishments of which Cope is proud, including the establishment of an ad-hoc committee for the evaluation of University administrators.”[This committee] gives the faculty a means and a format by which to evaluate the administration directly,” Cope said. “It is a big step forward to greater transparency and public scrutiny as to what the University does.”The committee is now examining the best way to implement an internal system for the evaluations.Another important step for the senate, according to Cope, is an increase in communication among faculty members. In March, the senate issued its first general letter to faculty, which regarded the University’s impeding budget cuts. “I’m very pleased with the experimentation with other communication modalities,” Cope said. “This is a big step forward to begin to use other means to communicate with the faculty.”Though Faculty Senate enjoyed many achievements over the year, there were some less successful plans.Faculty Senate Resolution 08-16 sought to create an official University holiday in observance of Memorial Day. The resolution faced opposition from Staff Senate, which argued that giving up one of the 14 state-approved holidays was too complicated to establish a Memorial Day holiday.The resolution has been tabled indefinitely. Cope said it faced too many problems to become a reality — not on the part of University employees, but because of the “hypocrisy of the state government.””No one wants to take a vacation day from the staff to make a Memorial Day holiday,” Cope said. “That problem would simply go away if the governor would allow 15 days instead of 14.”Another controversial Faculty Senate topic was Resolution 09-01, which sought a revised class schedule that would begin classes on the hour and half hour, rather than ten minutes later. The idea provoked a large response from the student body, which Cope said ultimately led to the resolution’s failure in March.”The tide of opinion was turned by input from the Student Government Association, which campaigned assertively against it,” Cope said. “Senators didn’t want to create necessary distress for students.”Cope said he never had a personal opinion on the class schedule resolution, but he feels it is an issue that will need to be addressed eventually.”I don’t know how we will resolve [time conflicts],” he said. “I expect that as the University continues to grow and scheduling of classes becomes more pervasive across hours of the day, we will have to revisit that.”Overall, Cope reflects positively on the Faculty Senate activity this year.”There have been a number of developments that have set a new pace in the University. It’s given faculty senate a higher profile,” he said.—-Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]